We did the Gator Run ride this weekend.  The first day we made the error of taking our two rookie horses only two weeks after their first 50 that they did at the Greenway ride.  The two both had tight hind muscles and we pulled both for sore hind ends from all of the sand work.  Darn, what novices we are!

The second day went really well, Jeremy rode Cleopatrah and I rode Chanses.  Both days the weather was in the low 80's and humid with a lot of deep sand.  Cleo and Chanses did well, they cantered through the first loop, recovered right away and ate well.  The rest of the day flew by.  The two horses galloped their last loop in the heat and sand and averaged 12+ mph for the 10 mile loop.

Near the finish line we started to lap the LD riders.  Cleo and Chanses tied for first and Chanses won BC.  Our ride time was 4:37.

The ride was uneventful for us but there were a lot of unfortunate things for others.  On Thursday night some horses got loose and raced through camp and several more got loose as a result.  There were a few injuries to the horses that got loose.  (Luckily we live 5 mins away so we did not camp there.  The camp is a beautiful place though if you were to camp.)  There were 2 rider falls on each day with two, maybe three broken collar bones and one helmet that split in half, one horse is still missing as I write this, from the rider falling off.

The trail was really well marked and there was plenty of water.  There were also great meals all three nights and the awards were nice too.  Gator Run is a very well managed ride.  Thank you to the Caudill's.

Heather